


The Oldest Lapis Lazuli

by BabyPom



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Backstory, Gem War, Gen, Pre-Gem War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-07
Updated: 2017-11-07
Packaged: 2019-01-30 16:45:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12657462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BabyPom/pseuds/BabyPom
Summary: Essentially, i thought “what if Lapis Lazuli isn’t just era one, she’s even older than that?”, and then it spiralled out my control into this.This is why homeworld trapped Lapis Lazuli in the mirror even though she obviously wasn't a crystal gem.





	The Oldest Lapis Lazuli

The diamonds were the oldest gems in existence- no one doubted that- no gem had a memory of before the diamonds, and the recorded history had the diamonds as a constant throughout it all. Some believed that the diamonds were truly eternal with no start point. They had just always been…   
The other extremely old gems were obviously favoured by the diamonds, but even they were still young comparatively. Most of these old gems had at some time received a crack in their long lives that required a Rose Quartz or Diamond to fix it, all except for two of the old gems. This being White Diamond’s Sapphire, who never left her diamond’s side, and one of Blue Diamond’s Lapis Lazuli. Among the much younger gems it was rumoured that these two hadn’t avoided cracking over the millions of years by being lucky, they were actually unbreakable, much like the diamonds themselves were said to be.  
Unlike like Sapphire, Lapis Lazuli spent most of her time offworld. She would be able to terraform an entire planet herself, whereas the younger, less experienced ones would have to work in teams, after all Lapis Lazulis were made in teams of six. Lapis Lazuli had had a team once, but the waves of time had washed them all away from her, their gemstones shattering from terraforming mistakes that caused them to be slowly crushed to death at the bottom of the ocean, or being executed for crimes she couldn’t even remember now. Sometimes, once she would sit down on the water, and try to pretend that they were still here, still alive, and she was still young and working with them. She’s imagine that she had made this place with them, that “One” had been the one who had made the intertwining currents in the ocean, and that “Whirlpool” had made all of the whirlpools that she had loved so much that they referred to her by that moniker. It got harder as the millennial passed, as their faces got more distant in her memories, and their voices became mere echoes in her mind, until when she tried to project her memories of them onto the water, she would be met by literal ghosts, her memories too faded to give accurate representations anymore. So she would terraform in the ways they would have, thinking that this would at least keep some of them alive.  
The worst thing about reaching this age, she would often think, was that you would see all of your friends die, and the few you have you have said everything that can be said to. Sapphire, the only one who truly understood Lapis, would only really speak to her every few centuries. It was only then they really had enough to say for a full conversation. Even then, she could see Sapphire went through the conversation with an air of stifled boredom. After all, Sapphire would have seen this conversation and every word in it before it even happened. Still, Sapphire kept up their rare communications, and for that Lapis was grateful.  
Lapis’s hatred of those that she cared about leaving her via death or lack of communication was why she tended to keep a distance between herself and the others who would inevitably be working on the same planet as her. They would always, no matter whether they were Zircons or Rubies or Quartz, start out excited to work on the same place as the Lapis Lazuli, most of them having come out of kindergartens she had carved out of the ground, even the older ones that were made on homeworld itself. Then, when Lapis Lazuli couldn’t gather up the energy or motivation to do more than greet them, and go through the motions of the interactions that she was forced to do because of regulations saying she must tell them where she is terraforming, and where they should stay away from, and where they should send Peridots to install warp-pads and other such things. It would have been much more amusing if she could terraform, and then watch as they struggled to find out where everything was hidden, but sadly that was not the case. Still, she would tend to leave a few extra places, maybe an island or two, that she told no one of. The younger gems would get disappointed at her lack of interaction with them, and some of them would get over it, while others would grow bitter, and think Lapis thought herself as too above them. Lapis felt sorry for crushing their ideals of what she was like, but at the same time, she knew she had to, because it was the only to keep herself from getting attached to gems that would surely die and break her heart if she got too close.  
She was considered by them to be unbreakable, and that was why they knew about her, and because she didn’t care for them, they resented her for that.   
When the war started on Earth, the planet she was on, and she didn’t react to this, and later on, when her colleagues would get shattered by the Crystal Gems and she didn’t shed a tear, her reputation as a cold hearted being, who had only survived this long by hardening her heart and gem to be unshatterable and by extension unemotional, was cemented. They didn’t remember that there had been a few wars prior to this, and by now Lapis knew they would only be transitory and only last a few millennia, so she didn’t really care anymore. The last one had been so long ago that it was no longer in recorded history, but she remembered it clearly- Whirlpool, previously the favourite of Blue Diamond, had led a rebellion, and been shattered for her efforts. She would never forget that, but gems as a species had.  
Her colleagues would inevitably “forget” to tell her where the battles were going on, or give her general misinformation, trying to get her caught up in battle, to try and goad her into taking part, or to try and disturb her or mock her. It was during one of these times that Lapis Lazuli finally found that she did have emotions about the war, but by that stage, she had been prevented from flying off, and poofed by a Bismuth of all gems. It was now that she realised maybe she should have cared more about the war, more about the fate of her fellow gems, but it was too late.  
When she came to, she found she was unable to reform, no matter how much she tried. Suddenly a familiar face appeared before her somehow- she wasn’t quite sure what she was seeing. It was one of the gems that she worked with once, who was on the earth colony with her.   
“I’m sure you’re wondering what’s going on Lapis Lazuli…. We found your gem on the battlefield, and Homeworld received some disturbing news that you may have been assisting the Crystal Gems in that battle. Which means we were allowed to place you in an interrogation mirror- and that I did. Don’t worry, you’ll only be in their until the war is over, or you tell us everything about the Crystal Gems. Which means you’ll be until the war is over, since I doubt you actually know anything.”   
Her vision went black, and she assumed that the mirror had been placed face down onto the table. She knew that she didn’t get on well with her colleagues- but did they really hate her enough to place her in an interrogation mirror. Maybe this was all just a twisted joke of some kind, and they’d come back to release her and let her go and reform in a few minutes. But no one came until the next day, when she knew she wouldn’t be released, and they started to go through the motions of interrogating her with a sadistic smile on their face.  
At least now she knew how Whirlpool felt during her interrogation, Lapis Lazuli thought to herself. Maybe if I don’t talk, just like Whirlpool, they’ll shatter me, just like they did her. Maybe an afterlife exists like a few philosophers in Homeworld say their is, and she’ll be able to see her team again. She could only hope.  
At the same time, being in this mirror gave her a small amount of perverse pleasure in seeing her captors expressions of frustration due to her lack of response, her lack of crying in response, her lack of screaming via the mirror. Still the mirror was a prison for her, as she couldn’t terraform anymore- she couldn’t keep their memory alive like she had promised she had all those millions of years ago when they were first created.  
It was only once the evacuation order was sent out was it proven that Lapis Lazuli could break, but no one was able to witness it, she had been broken by the simple act of being trodden on. She could have laughed, but she didn’t feel up to it. Now she was left, and there was nothing for her to do except think to herself, and if the planet had been evacuated, then there was basically no chance of anyone coming for her. Lapis Lazuli got herself settled in for an eternity of a life even more monotonous than before, with no hope in her heart of ever getting free and moving again, no hope of ever escaping, no hope of ever fully shattering, no hope of seeing her homeworld ever again, no hope of being able to terraform as her friends would have ever again.


End file.
